Spector attacked me at the pawn shop

[Al Nico]

I was just strolling down the high street off to see my next client when a yellow fronted shop that I was familiar with suggested I go in and have a look if there are any bargain phones to replace my old smashed one.

I'm not sure if they had any phones, but they did have a Spector bass guitar, and it was making sad eyes at me and looked hungry, but healthy.

The helpful and friendly assistant was decorated quite heavily in steel, nickel, and iron face studs and piercings. I sought prior permission to try the bass to show manners and reduce any risk of injury once the magnetic coils are activated.

I have a Harley Benton TB-70 that ambushed me last time I got trapped in this same shop, and the first thing I noticed was the Spector felt small and light.

Second thing I noticed was the action was high for my taste, then I notice the strings seemed slack, but it made a good sound and was playable. I'll sort the action soon.

 

 

I don't know which one it is but it says it was made in China, so quite exotic. It has for variable controls that are entirely unintuitive and make unpredictable and quite drastic changes. Unfortunately the manual has been lost.

All rolled fully clockwise is a good sound so sticking with that for now. It has EMG-SSD pickups. I'll go and look all this up soon and find out what I've bought.

The tuners are good.

 

The wood grain pattern on the body refracts and changes pattern changing viewing angle. Might be real, but the finish coating is that nasty warm plastic feeling polythene wrap. I have a rotary sander that could fix that.

Day one today so we're still a bit nervous of touching each other but we seem to have found some common ground that might lead to a beautiful crescendo. It's all in the fingers.

[Woodinblack]

Assuming it is a Spector Legend from your description. Almost certainly the knobs are volume, pan, bass and treble. generally volume at the front and pan closest to the pickups, but sometimes spector change that for a laugh. bass and treble should be reasonably apparent.

[Al Nico]

Just now, Woodinblack said:

Almost certainly the knobs are volume, pan, bass and treble. generally volume at the front and pan closest to the pickups, but sometimes spector change that for a laugh. bass and treble should be reasonably apparent.

Thank you. I looked it up and thought, I should really have been able to work it out. Here's what happened. Firstly it has EMG pickups which in many cases means the knobs do other things. In the shop we found out they were passive (maybe) and, well, that didn't convince me they would be les paul set up. After another visit my conclusion is that the tone pots are shot and make a flutter of difference, sometimes. Who needs tone pots? Anyone who doesn't, I'll gladly swap with yours.

[Woodinblack]

22 minutes ago, Al Nico said:

 Firstly it has EMG pickups which in many cases means the knobs do other things. In the shop we found out they were passive (maybe) and, well, that didn't convince me they would be les paul set up. After another visit my conclusion is that the tone pots are shot and make a flutter of difference, sometimes. Who needs tone pots? Anyone who doesn't, I'll gladly swap with yours.

 

I suspect the EMG pickups are passive going to a basic preamp, or maybe that has been taken out (or bypassed). Is there a battery? Is it a battery with any charge in it? 

[Al Nico]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I suspect the EMG pickups are passive going to a basic preamp, or maybe that has been taken out (or bypassed). Is there a battery? Is it a battery with any charge in it? 

I'm as excited as you to find out, and lower the saddles. I need to get set up properly to work on it. Get all my tools in a row and make the bed to use as a protective bench.

If I try now I'll attempt the only pozi I have handy, in some deluded hope that this time it wont knurl all the little screws until they have perfectly circular centre slots.

I suspect it will be setup in the most difficult way to solve the pot issues, which is likely why it looked hungry in the pawn shop?

 

edit: It had a dicky jack socket too but when eveything comes together is has the same sort of output level as my HB TB-70 on center notches. Since it has no ability to increase the the output like the Hb when you go above the notch, I suspect it is standard passive les paul. We should have a vote. The forum would no doubt give a substantial cash prize.

Edited Monday at 21:05 by Al Nico

[Al Nico]

I have some answers and it's looking promising. No PCB's in here.

I found Philips screwdriver and had the back plate off. I later scattered the screws around the room when I got in bed.

The spunky little balsa wood Spector is a passive analogue device, but alas, it has been visited by the Solder Butcher.

As seen in the image, the solder balls are created with a 40w soldering iron and 30 to 40 minuets of heat applied to the pot casing.

If done skilfully it can create exactly the right conditions to ruin the pot. and prevent a good electrical contact.

 

Still. This is all good. I have a preamp in the TB-70 but don't use it, that is, it stays set in the middle notches. I set the tone with an amp, just working to help it's natural sound, not processing into something new.

I might turn the treble down for a dull thumb sound, but that's rare.

I understand a bit about this passive setup and am going to enjoy fixing it, making all the signal paths strong, extra shielding, and military spec wiring quality, as I imagine it would be.

Whenever I buy pots on the net I don't get the nice ones.

Can anyone tell me please where I might get those nice high quality pots with ballistic grade sweat and cigarette ash IP protection?

 

[itu]

You need quality, check Bourns, Vishay, Alps, and any manufacturer that offers plastic track, or cermet pots. I did quite a lot of work on this as a youngster when the interweb was non-existent. At some point I lost my temper, and built step attenuators. Some are still in use in two of my basses. I don't remember has this 3, or 6 dB steps? Most likely latter. 

[Al Nico]

@itu Thank you for that. I went straight to Bourns and they have pots they say are specifically designed for guitars. That gives me confidence.

 

The selectable pots I can see being very useful on active setups to be very sure about the adjustment position.

I may approach this passive setup slightly differently.

I'd like, if practical with passive pickups, to wire them to run together in parallel or series. I could perhaps use a tone pot for summed output, freeing up the other to have maybe a variable series/parallel adjustment, or switch if I'm dreaming.

I'll need to design the circuit. I've found my college folder from 1999, which shows 6 ways to earth an electricity network distribution sub station, and work from there.

I seem to recall a Dingwall demo where the pickups could be set series or parallel and it seemed to make my favourite two sounds of the setup.

I'd appreciate if anyone could let me know if there are examples of passive guitars or basses wired like this to build my hopes and dreams upon?